Demo FictionSphere

zerolegends

Member
BACK US ON KICKSTARTER!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1163975700/fictionsphere-platformer-beat-em-up


Downloads:
https://gamejolt.com/games/ProjectFS/334936

https://teameinherjar.itch.io/projectfs

Recent Update:
About:

FictionSphere is a Sidescroller Action game that combines various combo mechanics from nostalgic hack and slash genres and crossing them over to the platforming field. This blend of mechanics creates what we call a "Technical Platformer".


Summary:
Since the dawn of mankind our survival as a species has always been tested, and in the distant future a new infection challenges our species once again. An unknown infection called the Phanteria has been spread upon the world transforming humans into monstrosities known as phantasms, leaving destruction behind in their wake. However, a company known as Astral Tech. began taking countermeasures to stop these fiends. They Created a line of robots called the Apostoloids and led a group of immune humans known as the Excells to salvage what remains of humanity. Knowing they cannot take on the world, they create a city called Faeble and only grant access to humans who can potentially manifest into Excells, leaving society split and segregating those who are a lost cause.

Key Features:


  • • Play as one of the two main heroes and embark on story driven missions
    • Each character will have a unique playstyle.
    • Customize your abilities to create the perfect custom combo! The possibilities are endless!
    • Take on numerous enemy types and adapt to each scenario.
    • Technical gameplay mixed with various other elements from platformers and gallery shooters!

Social:
https://www.teameinherjar.net/

https://www.facebook.com/TeamEinherjar/
https://twitter.com/EinherjarTeam
https://discord.gg/nVqvBzJ

Videos:


ScreenShots:




Artwork:





 
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Wow, this looks cool. I saw your Megaman project and was thinking "Looks amazing! Why doesn't this person do their own Megaman Zero type game?!"

Nice to see this. Would love to support your Kickstarter if I had money. One question though, (and this might be a dumb question), but did you have to pay someone to do the concept art for you? Or was it someone on your team that did it?
 

zerolegends

Member
Oh nice, I would try that game!
Thanks RangerX, i'm still currently developing it, but most of the basic gameplay is done, i think the only real issues is sound-fx, if im able to get the funds through kickstarter i can hire some guys to do some. But i'm glad you like it :D!

Wow, this looks cool. I saw your Megaman project and was thinking "Looks amazing! Why doesn't this person do their own Megaman Zero type game?!"
Nice to see this. Would love to support your Kickstarter if I had money. One question though, (and this might be a dumb question), but did you have to pay someone to do the concept art for you? Or was it someone on your team that did it?
As of right now everyone on the team including myself has no budget, all the ideas and concept art i draw myself and then my artist redraws them in his style. But it of course would be nice to be able to compensate them for the hard work they've put in.
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
Judging by the video, I definitely wanna try this out. I'll support this and hope you guys make it. I'm not sure if you're the same developer
who design a similar game on steam with a female protagonist, but if so then this is something worth my money lol
 

zerolegends

Member
Judging by the video, I definitely wanna try this out. I'll support this and hope you guys make it. I'm not sure if you're the same developer
who design a similar game on steam with a female protagonist, but if so then this is something worth my money lol
Thank you @Blakkid489 we're hoping for the best within the next 30 days! Help us spread the word! Also i'm not entirely sure who you're talking about but if your a fan of his game and you can make a connection we're glad that you came across FictionSphere Thanks again!
 
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PhenomenalDev

Guest
Maybe it's just me but the hits don't seem to resonate like idk how to describe it but they just feel wrong but eitherway this game looks amazing and I hope it gets funded.
 

zerolegends

Member
Maybe it's just me but the hits don't seem to resonate like idk how to describe it but they just feel wrong but eitherway this game looks amazing and I hope it gets funded.
I understanding what you mean, some games use the hit stun or the screenshake to put more oomph in the attack, however in a game like this, the hit stun needs to be very minimal to prevent dropped combos, it is in there,i might actually use the screen shake to put more of the impact you were talking about. Thanks for the heads up!
 
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PhenomenalDev

Guest
Yw, hope the kickstarter goes well, even though I am doubtful you will get funded sadly.
 

zerolegends

Member
Yw, hope the kickstarter goes well, even though I am doubtful you will get funded sadly.
Yeah we're feeling it here too :/ Its really saddening to say that the fans we've built up in the past, they arent coming through, and that probably is the most frustrating thing ever, the only reason i was able to work on FS or any of my other projects was due to my unemployment, but i think this might be where my game-making journey ends.
 
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PhenomenalDev

Guest
Yeah we're feeling it here too :/ Its really saddening to say that the fans we've built up in the past, they arent coming through, and that probably is the most frustrating thing ever, the only reason i was able to work on FS or any of my other projects was due to my unemployment, but i think this might be where my game-making journey ends.
I think the problem is it looks done and you are putting a seemingly finished game on kickstarter when it's much more a platform for early demos and concepts rather than finished products and so it belongs on something such as steam rather than kickstarter.
 
Yeah we're feeling it here too :/ Its really saddening to say that the fans we've built up in the past, they arent coming through, and that probably is the most frustrating thing ever, the only reason i was able to work on FS or any of my other projects was due to my unemployment, but i think this might be where my game-making journey ends.
I've seen it happen a milion times though. Games with thousands of followers make nothing while some games come out of nowhere and make crazy money. The importance of social media and stuff is way overrated. Likes are cheap, money isn't.

Your game could make money on KS with a few changes, though. Closer to 15k than 80k or whatever you're asking, though. If you're interested, let me know, and I'll take some time to list the things you could fix.

And "I can only work on my game because I have no job" is weak af, sorry. Even when I was working 70 hours a week, I still put time into my game. Your game looks pretty good. Man up! :p
 

zerolegends

Member
I've seen it happen a milion times though. Games with thousands of followers make nothing while some games come out of nowhere and make crazy money. The importance of social media and stuff is way overrated. Likes are cheap, money isn't.

Your game could make money on KS with a few changes, though. Closer to 15k than 80k or whatever you're asking, though. If you're interested, let me know, and I'll take some time to list the things you could fix.

And "I can only work on my game because I have no job" is weak af, sorry. Even when I was working 70 hours a week, I still put time into my game. Your game looks pretty good. Man up! :p
I've come to realize this, thank you for the comment! I'll continue to move forward with the game! If you want to list some things sure i'm all ears.
 
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Sphealnuke

Guest
I really want to see this succeed and get funded, but I just cannot personally get invested into this, and it seems the same for many people. On the Shoryuken article for your EVO Moment #37, all of the comments were just writing it off as another generic pixel art game.
I don't blame them. No offense to you, but the character designs in this just seem REALLY safe. Ratio seems decent enough, but Paradox just looks like textbook Light-Novel Female Lead. Seeing them just doesn't really get you invested in the project. The faceless enemies also don't really stick out. A lot of what made Beat-'em-Ups so great was how every enemy exuded personality, from the cowardly J to the monstrous Andore.
For actual gameplay issues I have, you are showing that 10 hit-combos aren't enough to be killing these basic grunts. I can easily see this ruining pacing, as basic enemies having so much health doesn't make them fun to fight after the eighth or so time. It just begins to feel like a chore.
Again, I WANT to see this do well, but it's just missing an identity that draws the populace in. More exposure would definitely be great to learn exactly why the Kickstarter is slow-going.

I wish you the best of luck with this. Megaman as a Beat-'em-up is literally my dream game. You just gotta get that magic touch of charisma into it.
 

zerolegends

Member
I really want to see this succeed and get funded, but I just cannot personally get invested into this, and it seems the same for many people. On the Shoryuken article for your EVO Moment #37, all of the comments were just writing it off as another generic pixel art game.
I don't blame them. No offense to you, but the character designs in this just seem REALLY safe. Ratio seems decent enough, but Paradox just looks like textbook Light-Novel Female Lead. Seeing them just doesn't really get you invested in the project. The faceless enemies also don't really stick out. A lot of what made Beat-'em-Ups so great was how every enemy exuded personality, from the cowardly J to the monstrous Andore.
For actual gameplay issues I have, you are showing that 10 hit-combos aren't enough to be killing these basic grunts. I can easily see this ruining pacing, as basic enemies having so much health doesn't make them fun to fight after the eighth or so time. It just begins to feel like a chore.
Again, I WANT to see this do well, but it's just missing an identity that draws the populace in. More exposure would definitely be great to learn exactly why the Kickstarter is slow-going.

I wish you the best of luck with this. Megaman as a Beat-'em-up is literally my dream game. You just gotta get that magic touch of charisma into it.
Thank you for the feedback, The thing with the design for Paradox, was actually much much different in appearance, entirely! However my sprite-artists expressed a major concern in converting it to a sprite, so i wont lie that there has been alot of restrictions when i was thinking of the designs not just paradox, but Ratio and pretty much entirely the rest of the cast. Also the 10 hit combo was just meant to show some of the cool stuff that you can do , but i understand how that can be translated into "slow pacing", I've been making some changes over the last few days to the game-play mostly on Ratios part. I'm prepping a small demo soon.
 
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Sphealnuke

Guest
I'll be looking forward to the demo when it comes out. The best way to learn what needs to change is of course hearing it from other people. Pic I could make a small suggestion, the forums for the Indie game "Skullgirls" sees multiple Indie devs posting progress on their games. As Skullgirls itself came from a massively successful crowd funding campaign, they've seen what can help and hinder the growth of these games. You may want to at least make a thread for this game there, as their feedback is generally tremendously helpful.
 
Just watched the kickstarter video looks good, but I do agree that something feels off about the way hits are landed as someone already pointed out here. I would donate to the kickstater, but I'm currently unemployed with barely any disposable income. I really hope you reach your goal.
 
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Sphealnuke

Guest
Just came by again to say congratulations on getting greenlit on Steam. Ought to bring this game into the public eye more.
So, what's your next move after the Kickstarter?
 

zerolegends

Member
Just came by again to say congratulations on getting greenlit on Steam. Ought to bring this game into the public eye more.
So, what's your next move after the Kickstarter?
Hey Sphealnuke! Thank you! I actually just got the message in my inbox today , and was pretty excited myself to see that! I read your last post as well, sorry for the late reply! As for what i plan to do after Kickstarter, even if the game does not get funded my team and I have agreed to continue progressing on the development of FS. Many have pointed out to go and try Patreon and I am thinking about it. But over the last week, i've been readjusting the game in terms of combat and planning to make the graphics all around smoother and better. I'm currently prepping up a little demo, in hopes that it will generate a bit more buzz, I think it'll also give a bit more leeway of where i can try and market it. Thank you for the support and the wonderful advice !

Just watched the kickstarter video looks good, but I do agree that something feels off about the way hits are landed as someone already pointed out here. I would donate to the kickstater, but I'm currently unemployed with barely any disposable income. I really hope you reach your goal.
Thank you for the feedback! Also thank you for wanting to take part in the backing process, I do quite understand your position and I do not hold it against you at all(since i am in the same predicament) Hope that you'll continue to follow my progress ^_^!!
 

sp202

Member
I hate to reiterate this when quite a few people have already mentioned it but in my opinion the character designs (and I don't just mean the player characters) look really cool but they're lacking personality. When paired with the uninspired backgrounds like a generic forest or a ruined city, it really detracts from any uniqueness the game might exhibit on the gameplay front.

It seems such a shame to me, because clearly the people working on this game are very talented but it feels like maybe you haven't chosen the best direction to head in and it's probably far too late to make any drastic changes. Regardless, I do hope you meet your Kickstarter goal, though I think 30k was a bit of an ambitious goal, and I'll reserve my judgement on gameplay until a demo has been released.
 

zerolegends

Member
I hate to reiterate this when quite a few people have already mentioned it but in my opinion the character designs (and I don't just mean the player characters) look really cool but they're lacking personality. When paired with the uninspired backgrounds like a generic forest or a ruined city, it really detracts from any uniqueness the game might exhibit on the gameplay front.

It seems such a shame to me, because clearly the people working on this game are very talented but it feels like maybe you haven't chosen the best direction to head in and it's probably far too late to make any drastic changes. Regardless, I do hope you meet your Kickstarter goal, though I think 30k was a bit of an ambitious goal, and I'll reserve my judgement on gameplay until a demo has been released.
Thank you for the feedback, its kinda a bit confusing when people tell me this, in terms of "Lacking Personality" aside from the basic Bio that we've given and a demo text example, explain a bit of how you came to that conclusion, you say it looks cool but then tell me its lacking personality, if you can give some examples, that will help me locate a good ground to work with. As for the backgrounds themselves, the point was to just show examples of the stage, not present a full level, such as presenting how the game world will most likely look in the long run. As far as me choosing the best direction to take it, I mentioned in the previous comments of why i chose this path, as a matter of fact alot of the direction was chosen by the Team, since its a really joint effort .
The Sprites and the Artistic Direction was chosen because that is what the artists strong points were. The Original Concepts that I created for both the main characters were going to be entirely different than what it is now, and again i have already mentioned that because of the limitations presented by the people working on the game with me I had to realistically dumb down the designs a lot.

One thing that i think people forget is that no matter how complex or even the smallest details i add to the design, or even try to make the characters full of personality , it will still in turn have to be translated into a Sprite, the more details and complex the design the harder it is to create a sprite, not to mention the sizes that we're working in limits it as it is, and if i were to have gone with a higher resolution type sprite it would've been harder to translate and painful for the sprite artist, i chose an equal ground to prevent any mishaps in the development process so that way everyones strong points are shining.
 

sp202

Member
You're right, "lacking personality" is pretty vague and unhelpful. I think a lot of the criticisms regarding personality stem from the somewhat generic poses and expressions of the character. Skullgirls was mentioned previously and I think they successfully manage "personality" through exaggerated animation which I understand is a limitation for you given the small resolution of the characters, the limited number of frames on animations as well as the artist's sensibilities.

The basic soldier enemies seen in the trailer aren't able to express much emotion either (but I suppose that's excusable given that they're meant to be imposing, robot type things) but their running animation is a bit goofy and their attacks look wishy-washy and half-hearted, I think they'd benefit from more elaborate attacking animations.

I think the animations for all the character could do with a bit more "bounce" to them. They feel somewhat stiff at the moment making movement seem "slippery".
 

zerolegends

Member
You're right, "lacking personality" is pretty vague and unhelpful. I think a lot of the criticisms regarding personality stem from the somewhat generic poses and expressions of the character. Skullgirls was mentioned previously and I think they successfully manage "personality" through exaggerated animation which I understand is a limitation for you given the small resolution of the characters, the limited number of frames on animations as well as the artist's sensibilities.

The basic soldier enemies seen in the trailer aren't able to express much emotion either (but I suppose that's excusable given that they're meant to be imposing, robot type things) but their running animation is a bit goofy and their attacks look wishy-washy and half-hearted, I think they'd benefit from more elaborate attacking animations.

I think the animations for all the character could do with a bit more "bounce" to them. They feel somewhat stiff at the moment making movement seem "slippery".
Thank you for the reply. No problems btw, I was just a bit confused , but i would love to improve in any way that i can. If its just in terms of Posing and expressions in the artwork, those can be changed that is for certain. I have mentioned to my sprite artists to do some revisions on the sprites and we're currently revamping and going over the sprites before releasing a demo. However the KS was definitely a good experience , as it did point out a lot of stuff that maybe we haven't seen,hopefully in the future the game will appeal to everyone.
 
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Sphealnuke

Guest
I'm sorry if I was a bit vague about what I was concerned about with the characters, particularly Paradox. Consider the bio you gave her on the Kickstarter page:
"A Denizen of Faeble, she fights against the Phantasms to keep the city safe. Executing those who stand in her way, her mission is to stop high-class Phantasms from harming Astral Tech facilities. She has a great passion for protecting her loved ones."
So we only get the bare minimum of character here. As a denizen, what position is she in that she would be fighting as a soldier? Why does she care so much about who is close to her? Does that refer to a family of sorts? We also get little direct description of who she is compared to Ratio, who is stated to be a wise-cracking hot-blooded youth with the persona hiding his resentment of his world. It just makes her feel like something you look at once to say "That's kinda cool.", but doesn't have anything that would get someone to really look at it and keep coming back. Just my thoughts again.
 

zerolegends

Member
I'm sorry if I was a bit vague about what I was concerned about with the characters, particularly Paradox. Consider the bio you gave her on the Kickstarter page:
"A Denizen of Faeble, she fights against the Phantasms to keep the city safe. Executing those who stand in her way, her mission is to stop high-class Phantasms from harming Astral Tech facilities. She has a great passion for protecting her loved ones."
So we only get the bare minimum of character here. As a denizen, what position is she in that she would be fighting as a soldier? Why does she care so much about who is close to her? Does that refer to a family of sorts? We also get little direct description of who she is compared to Ratio, who is stated to be a wise-cracking hot-blooded youth with the persona hiding his resentment of his world. It just makes her feel like something you look at once to say "That's kinda cool.", but doesn't have anything that would get someone to really look at it and keep coming back. Just my thoughts again.
Ahh i see! that's a bit more helpful, from what i am understanding its wanting a little bit more information of her backstory and elements that makes her who she is. I think that can be easily done, I plan on making a little Page or starting up a wiki for it throughout the development for people to check out. I do agree that i put very little information about her, I think part of the reason was because i wanted to try to make the synopsis as short as possible without overbearing the readers with to much information,as her story does deal a little bit more cards to play with. It was very informative thank you!
 
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Sphealnuke

Guest
So...the Kickstarter probably didn't go as expected.
I know that I didn't donate, but I still hope that you learned a lot about what it takes to market a game. I'm all for this growing into an enjoyable game.
If you had to do it over, what do you feel like you could have done to improve its appeal to the public?
 

zerolegends

Member
So...the Kickstarter probably didn't go as expected.
I know that I didn't donate, but I still hope that you learned a lot about what it takes to market a game. I'm all for this growing into an enjoyable game.
If you had to do it over, what do you feel like you could have done to improve its appeal to the public?
Okay SUPPPPER Sorry for the late response, it got so busy for me but now that i'm back with some updates i'll answer all your questions.

1. Over these last 6 months i have learned a lot about my failure and what i can do to make it better for my next run around
2. I've literally locked myself in the batcave doing research and primarily fixing up the game to be in a playable state because i feel that's one of the things i was missing, as well as looking to my peers as examples and what they do/didn't do.
3. Marketing is a must and i've been researching new ways to appeal more-so with organic reach rather than using Ads and other such things.
4. The game is actually nearing completion and i'm going to be holding some private alpha test which will move onto the public afterwards.
5. I've been revamping the games aesthetics aka making the game flashier adding effects and other things, because my previous video lacked a lot of that, but thanks to learning some new techniques like shaders etc etc etc, ive been revamping the engine ever since
6. Sprites, No way around it, the sprites i had used were unfinished but this time around it'll be better.


Heres a new update showing my sprites

 

WarpDogsVG

Member
I really like your new sprites! They look wonderful

Currently going through a Kickstarter of my own and received more advice than I could possibly swallow, but I'm happy to share what I learned if you're interested!
 

zerolegends

Member
I really like your new sprites! They look wonderful

Currently going through a Kickstarter of my own and received more advice than I could possibly swallow, but I'm happy to share what I learned if you're interested!
Thank you! We've spent a lot of time doing a heavy revamp, still room for improvement but getting there. I can see that you're doing your own KS adventure! Good luck btw. I'd love to hear some more tips and tricks or any sort of advice if you have any. I'll humbly accept it!
 

RangerX

Member
Your in-game art looks great as usual! Keep up!
I am wondering about your shader though (page flip). I feel this is so specific in matter of "feel" that it might not fit the game. It feels "paper", it feels "I was reading a book". This might not be what your game is.
 

zerolegends

Member
Your in-game art looks great as usual! Keep up!
I am wondering about your shader though (page flip). I feel this is so specific in matter of "feel" that it might not fit the game. It feels "paper", it feels "I was reading a book". This might not be what your game is.
Thank you for the feedback, i've been getting that quite alot about the PageFlip. I had put that there to reflect my logo. The game itself and the bosses revolve heavily around Fiction Related themes from various Myths, Folklore, old wives tales etc. The idea behind the game is that the events takes place within some sort of "Fictional world" like a diary or journal. I guess the Clear message i want to send across to the players is to "Write " their own story in a sense.
 

zerolegends

Member
Ok cool, if you work your thing that players can feel they are "in a book" or journal, that's awesome and it fits. :)
Yeah for sure ^_^ i have something planned for that i'll be releasing a bit more information about the game pretty soon, again thank you for your feedback, it was really helpful. I'm glad that everyone is liking the visual appeal of the game.
 
M

milch

Guest
the zoom effect really adds a lot of energy!! awesome! :D
with how many people are you working on this?
 
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